What are indexes?
An index in a library does exactly the same thing as an index in a book: it makes it easier for you to find things. The vast majority of the information on VWML Online is in the form of indexes. The main use you can put VWML Online to at the moment is to find out whether documents and recordings about songs, dances and so on exist, and if they do, where you can obtain them.
In the vast majority of cases VWML Online does not hold digitised versions of original documents. We aim to link the indexes to digitisations eventually, but such a process is expensive, and depends on funding and copyright. In many cases however the indexes themselves can answer questions about a song or a dance: where and when it was collected and so on.
The Roud folksong and broadside and dance indexes list an enormous amount of information about songs, broadsides, dances and their sources. In many cases, but certainly not all, the source materials are held at VWML.
All the other indexes specifically list information about resources held at VWML.
If you find something in the indexes that you specifically wish to see, then the starting point would be to email the librarians at VWML with a query about the item you wish to see. They will then let you know whether they hold the item, or where else to contact if they don't.
